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Thursday, November 24, 2016

This
year, Lance’s parents joined us for Thanksgiving, so for the first time we did
it with both sides of the family. My
parents hosted and most of the traditional dishes like stuffing, sweet
potatoes, etc were already taken by other relatives, so I contributed a couple
appetizer dishes and a punch. They were
all new recipes to me that I found on Pinterest, and luckily they were
all keepers.

My
first dish was a fig crostini. When I went
grocery shopping, we found out that fresh figs aren’t in season (I called around
to all our local stores…) so I settled for dried figs. Everyone actually loved it with the dried
ones though, so I think I’d do it the same way again next time I make it.

My
parents had some fun with this year’s turkey and put a sliced lemon beneath the
skin to give the turkey some enhancements.

We
enjoyed a huge meal, then later on, ended it with several Mike’s Pies desserts.

We’re
finishing the day up now watching the Steelers game on our new Black Friday
purchased TV (early Christmas present).
I’m normally completely against shopping ON Thanksgiving since I think
stores should be closed, but our TV took a dive when our wall mounted console
fell last month, so it needed to be replaced.

Sunday, November 20, 2016

We have
a new go-to restaurant. Last week after our
bike ride around St. Pete and visit to the Dali Museum, we met up with our
friend Libby for a late lunch at the just-opened Better Byrd. It’s run by the Ciccio Restaurant Group (who
owns half the restaurants on Howard in Tampa – Daily Eats, Fresh Kitchen, Green
Lemon, the Lodge, and Ciccio Water). The other half of the Better Byrd building is actually
another Fresh Kitchen, which shares an outdoor space so you have the choice of
dining at either restaurant.

It is a
fast casual concept which specializes in chicken and donuts. I originally thought it was going to just be
unhealthy fried chicken dishes, but they actually have amazing fresh bowl
options as well. Their menu is pretty
extensive, but they have an area to review the options on the wall right when
you walk in before you get in line if you’re indecisive.

Here’s a
brief description of their philosophy:

I had
their PestoByrd bowl with chicken, arugula, grape tomatoes, cucumber, lemon
almond pesto, and quinoa. I was really
hoping for their sweet potato tots, but they apparently haven’t started serving
those yet, so I got sweet potato fries instead, served with creamy maple
dip. Libby had their Melon Margaryta
bowl, and Lance had their Numberone sandwich.

Lance
and I had beers (they have several local ones available). We saw on their website that their beers are
only $3 on the weekends, but on checkout, the girl didn’t seem to know about that special (they had literally had their grand opening two days prior, so everyone was
still in training…) She seemed confused
when we mentioned it to her, but we didn’t want to hold up the line and cause a
scene about it, so we ended up just paying the normal $4 for our drinks. They did give us Better Byrd coozies with our
drinks to keep them cold though which was nice.

They
have a bunch of amazing sounding donut flavors.
They are mini, which is great because you can eat more of them, but they
sell them in sets of 3 per flavor. The whole
point of mini donuts is that you can try more variety, so they might as well
just sell full-sized donuts if you’re eating 3 mini ones of one flavor. This time we tried the hibiscus cardamom and
the lemon poppy thyme (loved them both!)

I only
ate half my bowl so I’d have room for donuts – it kept well for lunch the next
day.

Only two
days later, we returned with my cousin Jenn, my brother, David, and his
girlfriend, Kim. Jenn and David had just
celebrated their birthdays, so we wanted to take them out to eat as a late
gift. It was more crowded that night – I
guess the word got out about their delicious food!

I can’t
even remember the last time I ate at the same restaurant twice in one week, but
we enjoyed it so much the first time, we couldn’t wait to return. This time, I tried
another one of the bowls – the Byrd-a-Bing with chicken, mixed greens, dried
bing cherries, toasted walnuts, cucumber, quinoa and creamy mojo dressing. I figured that since I wanted to try a few
more donuts, I should get something healthy again.

I also had
their homemade watermelon lemonade, which they have next to the soda fountain. I didn’t get it the time before because I figured
it would be a fake watermelon taste like a Jolly Rancher, but Libby gave me a
sip of hers and it was super refreshing, so this time I got it for myself.

I tried
one of my brother’s truffle garlic parmesan wings and it was amazing – I think
next time we go, I’ll get the wings since they have several interesting
varieties.

We had a
dozen mini donuts between the 5 of us – cracker jack, pumpkin spice, chocolate raspberry,
and toasted coconut. I actually spoke
with one of their employees about how I wished you could order the flavors
individually since they all sound so good.
They all have the same cake base, but they are decorated
freshly on order. He explained that
since they have just one person in charge of donuts in the back, it would be
much too time consuming to have them do all different flavors all on one
order. Right now if you order 3 you can
only get 1 flavor and with 6 you can get 2 flavors. He said they may change it so you can order 2
different flavors with an order of 4 so you can try a bit more variety.

My favorites
so far from the two trips have been the hibiscus cardamom and the chocolate
raspberry – both were tossed in a sugary coating and have a slightly tart
aftertaste.

It’s the
perfect place to go with a group because they have something for just about everyone
and it’s very reasonable. Our meals
averaged around $10. It wouldn’t be
ideal for vegetarians since it’s nearly all chicken dishes, but they do have
the option for veggie burgers just in case.

Another
location is coming to the Tampa side of the bay soon at the corner of Howard
Ave and Platt St. I have yet to find an opening
date, but I’m excited we’ll have another one even closer to us soon!

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Now that
Lance has a regular Monday – Friday job, we can finally do whatever we want
together on the weekends! Last week, we
took a bike ride around Snell Isle in St. Pete down to the Dali Museum.
They currently have an exhibit running called “The Invention of Food.” It celebrates the dishes of world renown chef
Ferran Adria, whose Michelin 3-star restaurant, El Bulli, was only a few miles
from Dali’s home in Spain.

According
to the Michelin guide, one star signifies "a very good restaurant", two stars are "excellent
cooking that is worth a detour", and three stars mean "exceptional cuisine that is worth a
special journey". The listing of starred restaurants is updated once a
year.

His
dishes look like works of art themselves, many of them inspired by nature. One wall had a constantly changing
collage of photos with pictures of his creations. Every night, El Bulli served a new
combination of dishes, with 30-50 courses at each meal.

2
million people a year would attempt to get reservations, but they only allowed
8,000 diners. For a better idea of the
kinds of outrageous foods served, check out this post by
the Amateur Gourmet – one of the few who was lucky enough to experience
this restaurant. Despite the meals being
£240 (or about $300) per
person, the restaurant still was not profitable, so they shut their doors in
2011.

We unfortunately
did not attend any of the immersion dinners, but they do offer samples of pata
negra ham at the Dali museum exhibit – they feet a pig a diet exclusively of
acorns, then age the meat for four years.
It was a small sliver, but I was surprised how much flavor was in that
tiny bite. I can imagine a full dinner
at El Bulli would have been a pretty amazing experience if that’s any
indication of the flavors you’d taste.

If you
haven’t been to the Dali Museum before, it’s worth going since you can view
both the Dali pieces and this temporary exhibit.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Lance went to Pittsburgh for a guys' weekend to see a Steelers game (they won!) So while he was out, I had a girls' pumpkin carving/decorating night.

Most of us ended up painting our pumpkins rather than carving (in Florida, it's way too humid for a carved pumpkin to last the whole month...) Everyone came up with really creative designs - I think it's the best group of pumpkins I've ever seen. You can scroll to the bottom to see the individual pumpkins, but here we are with our creations:

I tried to get a pumpkin from the Hyde Park pumpkin patch, but it was insanely packed! There was a huge line, so I ended up getting mine from the grocery store instead. It wasn't the prettiest of pumpkins, but since it was painted anyways, it didn't matter. Thao got hers from Hyde Park and it was the most stereotypical perfect pumpkin.

For dinner, I tried out a few new Pinterest recipes and they all turned out amazing! I love all fall ingredients - squash, pumpkin, figs, pears, pomegranates, apples, etc. I go crazy buying everything at Trader Joe's this time of year since it's all pumpkin flavored.

Hillary also brought over this amazing popcorn coated in marshmallows and drizzled with chocolate (it had candy corn for decoration which I'm not a fan of, but I just ate around them...) It was seriously addicting - like Rice Krispie treats made of popcorn. If I get the recipe I'll post it on here too.

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the oil. Cover the squash slices with salt, pepper, and brown sugar and add to the skillet. Cook until slightly caramelized, about 10 minutes on each side.

2. Add spinach/arugula to a large bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the avocado, pomegranate arils, cucumber, pecans, and squash pieces.

1-1/2 cups Silk Unsweetened Cashew Milk (I completely forgot to add this since I was too busy chatting with friends - it turned out fine without it, but may be a bit creamier with it)

1 bunch kale leaves, coarsely chopped

2 cups ricotta

salt and pepper, to taste

8 oz mozzarella, grated

1/4 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta until al dente.

3. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the onion, sage red pepper flakes, and pinch of salt. Saute for 3-4 minutes, or until onions become translucent.

4. Stir in the pumpkin and saute for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add in the cashew milk and bring to a simmer. Stir in th ekale and simmer for 4-5 more minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in the ricotta and season to taste with salt & pepper.

5. Grease a 9x13 baking pan. Toss the pasta with the pumpkin mixture and spread half of it in the pan. Sprinkle half the cheese, top with the other half of the pasta, then sprinkle with more cheese. Top with bread crumbs.

6. Bake for 25 minutes or until cheese begins to brown and sauce is bubbling. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.